PLUS; Mancini's troubles in Europe continue, Arsenal's 15min flight does make sense, Pogba proves there is life after United and more

After 35 matches in charge, he has won
the Champions League, the FA Cup and reached the top of the Premier League with an unbeaten start to the new campaign.

No manager in English football has enjoyed such a successful start to a job.

No manager has overseen a more complete tactical overhaul at any club in Premier League history.

No
manager has had to endure such a long-running negative media story as the John Terry affair, or work under a more impatient owner than Roman Abramovich.

Yet the question remains: Roberto Di Matteo, a prince or a puppet?

As Di Matteo welcomes Sir Alex Ferguson to Stamford Bridge for the first blue riband fixture of the Premier League title race today, the contrast between the two managers is stark.

The old-school totalitarian ruler against the emasculated coach who has little say in transfer dealings, contract matters or disciplinary issues.

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Trigger happy: Abramovich has a reputation for sacking managers

Any English football follower has been
brought up to believe that the Ferguson approach is the best, perhaps the only, way of ensuring success.

And yet Chelsea’s experiences over the last eight months suggest something very different.

The cult of the manager, a peculiarly British phenomenon which did not exist until the era of Bill Shankly and
Brian Clough, is now dying out.

Di Matteo says: “Ferguson is ­probably
an exception in the way he has been able to stay with one club and become so powerful. If you look at Europe, our model is very common. Maybe not so much in England but you can see more and more clubs here are employing sporting directors.”

Di
Matteo’s appointment as Chelsea manager was certainly a happy accident,
when he inherited the post from Andre Villas-Boas for the final 10 weeks of last ­season, with Abramovich having no intention of considering him for the role on a permanent basis.

Four years ago today, Di Matteo was taking Milton Keynes Dons to Leyton Orient for a League One fixture.

He is not remembered by Dons ­players as a particularly innovative coach or inspirational man-manager, but rather as a quiet man who made little impression personally or professionally.

And few West Brom players mourned his sacking, despite him having led the Baggies to promotion.

Chelsea’s players were so glad to see the back of AVB in March that they would have stepped up their game for anybody – even a supposed stopgap. And yet Di Matteo’s achievements ­cannot simply be dismissed as the result of outrageous fortune.

Sure,
he has benefited from Abramovich’s latest spending spree on Eden Hazard
and Oscar, whose ­recruitment had little or nothing to do with him.

But on a purely tactical level, Di Matteo deserves to be cut some slack.

It
was heroic enough to defeat Barcelona over two legs, and with 10 men for most of the match in the Nou Camp, on a night when anti-football has
never been so magnificent. But after handing Abramovich his Holy Grail in Munich, Di Matteo was finally presented with an even mightier mission.

That of tearing up the template which had won Chelsea three titles and ­resolving to beat Barcelona at their own game, next time around.

Employing Hazard, Oscar and Juan Mata –
Chelsea’s own Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta – in the same team would have seemed unthinkable during the past decade, as the Blues steamrollered opposition, largely ­courtesy of the long ball up to Didier Drogba and the goal threat of an on-rushing Frank Lampard.

The
start to Chelsea’s domestic ­campaign, especially away wins at Arsenal and Tottenham, suggests Di Matteo is not simply a meek man who has inherited the earth.

Mike Hewitt

Hazard warning: Chelsea's new signings are playing like Barca

Defeat by Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday was evidence that events will never run entirely smoothly after such a radical reinvention process.

Qualification
for the Champions League knockout stage is on a knife-edge, yet a side who finished 25 points behind the Manchester clubs last season look destined to remain in the title battle.

While
the racism storms have raged, and Chelsea’s overlords appalled many with their leniency towards John Terry, Di Matteo publicly spouted the ‘no one likes us, we don’t care’ philosophy.

But he knows Abramovich wants Chelsea to be likened to Barca, not Millwall.

Soon,
Terry, Lampard and even Ashley Cole will be consigned to ­history, with
the owner unwilling to offer them long-term contracts, despite Di Matteo counselling against such ruthlessness.

Ferguson, the godfather of British managers, his immense successes built on fear, respect and ultimate power, might privately regard his ­opposite number as something of an impostor today.

Many still do, but attitudes are ­changing rapidly. So, too, are Chelsea.

Mancini Sincs to new lows in Europe

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Bench mark: Why dis Sinclair join Man City?

There are some tough questions for Roberto Mancini to answer after the defeat at Ajax which spells almost certain Champions League elimination for Manchester City.

After six Champions League campaigns with two of the world’s richest clubs, City and Inter Milan, and not reaching a single semi-final, is it time to consider Mancini’s failures in Europe, despite a mastery of domestic football, as something other than a series of unfortunate mishaps or coincidences?

If City’s players cannot cope with a system of three central defenders or zonal marking at set-pieces, then do they need to recruit some more communicative coaches or some more intelligent footballers?

If
Mancini chooses to throw on his four front-line strikers, while leaving
winger Scott Sinclair on the bench, why did he sign the young Englishman? And why did Sinclair believe a move to City would progress his career?

And if Mancini needs to spend time shoe-shopping in Amsterdam before such a crucial game, are Manchester’s footwear boutiques letting down their city’s reputation as a major centre for the attraction of well-heeled footballers?

Wenger in the wrong about Rooney Rule

Shaun Botterill

Mon dieu! Wenger claims Rooney Rule is a kind of racism

They
may have been under intense pressure to say something constructive on racism amid the fall-out of the John Terry affair but the PFA were right
to endorse the introduction of the Rooney Rule, the NFL initiative which insists ethnic minority candidates are interviewed for management and coaching vacancies.

The
lack of black bosses in English football is scandalous, so it was jarring to hear as intelligent a man as Arsene Wenger denouncing the Rooney Rule as ‘a kind of racism’.

Wenger should know that evil will triumph when good men do nothing.

Shebby goes from bad to worse at Rovers

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Fowl play: Kean was a public hate figure in Blackburn

The
fun never stops with Blackburn’s ‘global advisor’ Shebby Singh, who this week targeted Billy McKinlay as Rovers’ next manager.

McKinlay is
a 43-year-old Glaswegian with no previous management experience, currently first-team coach at Fulham, after spells with their reserves and youth teams. The last time Blackburn recruited a new manager, they employed a 43-year-old Glaswegian, with no management experience, whose previous job was as first-team coach at Fulham, after spells with the reserves and youth teams.

A certain Steve Kean.

Rooney reveals political persuasions

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Wag the dog: Rooney is backing Obama

Wayne Rooney has told his Twitter followers that he is endorsing Barack Obama
to win the US Presidential election, having stayed up to watch all three of his debates with Republican rival Mitt Romney – revealing a hitherto unknown interest in world affairs.

The election results will roll in during the early hours of Wednesday November 7,
so Rooney will be attempting to grasp the complexities of the electoral
college system – which once saw George W Bush beat Al Gore despite gaining fewer votes – in a Portuguese hotel room before United’s Champions League match at Braga the following evening. Beats the adult channel any night of the week.

Who
says romance is dead in sport?

The owners of Black Caviar, the top sprinter in the world, wish to send their mare to meet the greatest racehorse on the planet, Frankel, at his breeding shed. This may be an arranged union. Frankel may not even woo his date with flowers, chocolates or even a sugar-lump. But as we scratch our heads on the best
way to produce talent in entirely human sports, we could learn a lesson
or two from horse racing.

Not just a flight of fancy for Gunners

Anyone who criticised Arsenal for taking a 15-minute flight to Norwich for last weekend’s match has obviously never been stuck on the A11 at Elveden in Friday rush-hour, just as Center Parcs is welcoming thousands of holiday-makers. There is only one mindset to be in after such an experience and, given that murderous rage is frowned upon in the Premier
League, Arsene Wenger was right to ignore all talk of carbon footprints
and take the plane.

Pogba proves there is life after United

Valerio Pennicino

New lease of life: Pogba has impressed in Serie A

Paul Pogba netted his first goal for Juventus last weekend and the 19-year-old French midfielder, who left Manchester United in the summer, is earning rave reviews in Serie A. After Ferguson admitted it was a mistake to allow Ryan Shawcross to leave Old Trafford, only to see the Stoke defender make the full England squad, it is time to ditch the old truism that when you leave United, the only way is down.